Abid Bashir
Srinagar, Jun 16: Union Home Minister Amit Shah Sunday chaired a high level security meeting on Jammu and Kashmir to review the security arrangements for the upcoming annual pilgrimage of Shri Amarnatha and the “security situation prevailing in Jammu region in view of recent terror attacks.” Shah, as per sources, directed the Lieutenant Governor of J&K Manoj Sinha and security top brass of the UT to “crush the emerging terrorism in Jammu region and not allow its revival at any cost while stressing on the fool-proof security cover for the Yatra.
Sources said that the meeting was held in New Delhi where Army chief General Manoj Pande, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla, Director IB Tapan Deka, DG CRPF Anish Dayal Singh. From J&K LG Sinha, Chief Secretary Atal Duloo, DGP RR Swain, Vijay Kumar, ADGP (L&O) J&K, senior army officers and intelligence officers participated in the meeting. National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval was also present in the meeting.
Sources privy to the meeting said that Home Minister Shah sought the detailed report on the prevailing security situation in Jammu region in the wake of recent surge in terrorist attacks. “The Home Minister was given a brief about the security scenario prevailing in Jammu. He directed the top security brass to go hard on the terrorists operating in Jammu and harder against the elements supporting them,” they said. “The Home Minister expressed his concern over the attack on Shiv Kohri pilgrims and called for well-coordinated efforts for guarding the pilgrims coming to Vaishno Devi, Shiv Kohri and other shrines. He directed the security officials to maintain high vigil on highways and vulnerable points to protect the movement of security forces and pilgrims.”
He said the elements supporting terrorists in Jammu should be “dealt with iron hand and the revival of terrorism shouldn’t be allowed in the region at any cost.” Sources said that the Home Minister directed the security top brass to generate human intelligence to reach out to the terrorists operating in Jammu. “He also stressed on plugging the points where from the foreign terrorists have managed to enter into this side,” sources said.
The Home Minister also called for putting in place a “multi-tier security cover” for upcoming Amarnath Yatra stressing that “every single Yatri should be protected and pilgrimage should be conducted in a safe security environment”, sources said. They said that the Home Minister also stressed on the need for guarding the Yatra routes upto base camps. The annual Yatra will commence on June 29 and culminate on August 19.
In the meeting, a plan to guard all tourist spots and sites in Kashmir and Jammu was also discussed and measures to prevent possible attacks by terrorists were fine-tuned as well. The Home Minister expressed his satisfaction in the peaceful situation prevailing in Kashmir and lowest ever graph of local terrorists recruitment. He also hailed the security agencies for the smooth and peaceful conduct of Lok Sabha elections in J&K that saw record participation of people. It may be called that today’s meeting comes days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a high level security meeting in Delhi wherein he called for using “full-spectrum of resources” to crush foreign terrorism in J&K.
